Edit This Favorite

As I sit here looking at the 15-foot high snow drifts on our
plant grounds, I am amazed at how hard our staff at the City of Chicago works
to operate no matter what the conditions.
And I know we’re not alone – water and sewer utility staff must be some
of the toughest bunch around. Whether
they’re stuck in a trench, wet and freezing, or trying not to pass out from the
heat during a sweltering August day, or working the midnight shift operating a plant,
or taking water samples from people’s homes, water utility staff are working
hard while other people go home, turn on their faucets or flush their toilet,
and don’t give it a second thought. We
are indeed the silent service. So take a second to thank your staff. Let them know that their dedication is
appreciated. Encourage them to make
their job a career, to get their Operator’s License, to get their Professional
Engineer License.

One of the ways you can thank your staff for that dedication
is to by providing the opportunity for training and professional
volunteerism. Illinois Section AWWA
provides so many fantastic opportunities for training tailored to your
utility’s needs. WATERCON 2014 is coming
up in March, and as always I find myself looking forward to all the technical
talks, the new products in the exhibit hall, and the chance to network with
other water and sewer professionals. In
addition, I am excited that there will be three High Tech Operator courses held
at Chicago’s Jardine Water Purification Plant (May 13-14, Aug 12-13, & Oct 20-21, www.isawwa.org/event/05-13-14). And, if off-site travel is not possible, have
an on-site brown bag lunch with your staff and watch one of ISAWWA’s huge
variety of webinars. Your staff will
appreciate it and give you back more than you put in.

It’s also a great idea to encourage them to volunteer for
ISAWWA or national AWWA committees. Volunteering
allows for making those key connections with other utilities and water experts
that can really come in handy when problems arise. I can’t remember how many times I’ve sent a
quick email to a colleague in the water industry that I’ve met through ISAWWA
to ask "We’re having a problem with ______. How do you handle that?” And I’ve gotten both personal and professional
fulfillment from serving on the WATERCON planning committee, and the Young
Professional Committee, the Water Trailer Committee, and more recently the
national committee helping to provide technical resources for updating the Lead
and Copper Rule. Now is the time to
encourage your staff to volunteer – AWWA’s national Annual Conference and
Exhibition (ACE) will be held in Chicago in 2016. Sounds like a long time away, right? Wrong.
ISAWWA has a skeleton planning committee that will start meeting in
February. Yes, as in February 2014. And as we have learned from planning previous
national conferences such as the one in 2010, we need a metric ton of
volunteers. We need volunteers to fill
in spots on the committee; we need volunteers to be on-site during the
conference itself, and everything in between.
If you are at all interested in volunteering, please contact me or Terry
McGhee.

Let your staff know that they can have more than a job in
the water industry, they can have a career.